An important design feature of language is the use of productive patterns in inflection. In English, we have pairs such as ‘enjoy’ — ‘enjoyed’, ‘agree’ — ‘agreed’, and many others. On the basis of ...
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An important design feature of language is the use of productive patterns in inflection. In English, we have pairs such as ‘enjoy’ — ‘enjoyed’, ‘agree’ — ‘agreed’, and many others. On the basis of this productive pattern, if we meet a new verb ‘transduce’ we know that there will be the form ‘transduced’. Even if the pattern is not fully regular, there will be a form available, as in ‘understand’ — ‘understood’. Surprisingly, this principle is sometimes violated, a phenomenon known as defectiveness, which means there is a gap in a word's set of forms: for example, given the verb ‘forego’, many if not most people are unwilling to produce a past tense. Although such gaps have been known to us since the days of Classical grammarians, they remain poorly understood. Defectiveness contradicts basic assumptions about the way inflectional rules operate, because it seems to require that speakers know that for certain words, not only should one not employ the expected rule, one should not employ any rule at all. This is a serious problem, since it is probably safe to say that all reigning models of grammar were designed as if defectiveness did not exist, and would lose a considerable amount of their elegance if it were properly factored in. This volume addresses these issues from a number of analytical approaches — historical, statistical and theoretical — and by using studies from a range of languages.Less

Defective Paradigms : Missing Forms and What They Tell Us

Published in print: 2010-05-20

An important design feature of language is the use of productive patterns in inflection. In English, we have pairs such as ‘enjoy’ — ‘enjoyed’, ‘agree’ — ‘agreed’, and many others. On the basis of this productive pattern, if we meet a new verb ‘transduce’ we know that there will be the form ‘transduced’. Even if the pattern is not fully regular, there will be a form available, as in ‘understand’ — ‘understood’. Surprisingly, this principle is sometimes violated, a phenomenon known as defectiveness, which means there is a gap in a word's set of forms: for example, given the verb ‘forego’, many if not most people are unwilling to produce a past tense. Although such gaps have been known to us since the days of Classical grammarians, they remain poorly understood. Defectiveness contradicts basic assumptions about the way inflectional rules operate, because it seems to require that speakers know that for certain words, not only should one not employ the expected rule, one should not employ any rule at all. This is a serious problem, since it is probably safe to say that all reigning models of grammar were designed as if defectiveness did not exist, and would lose a considerable amount of their elegance if it were properly factored in. This volume addresses these issues from a number of analytical approaches — historical, statistical and theoretical — and by using studies from a range of languages.

Deponency is a mismatch between form and function in language that was first described for Latin, where there is a group of verbs (the deponents) that are morphologically passive but syntactically ...
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Deponency is a mismatch between form and function in language that was first described for Latin, where there is a group of verbs (the deponents) that are morphologically passive but syntactically active. This is evidence of a larger problem involving the interface between syntax and morphology: inflectional morphology is supposed to specify syntactic function, but sometimes it sends out the wrong signal. Although the problem is as old as the Western linguistic tradition, no generally accepted account of it has yet been given, and it is safe to say that all current theories of language have been constructed as if deponency did not exist. In recent years, however, linguists have begun to confront its theoretical implications, albeit largely in isolation from each other. There is as yet no definitive statement of the problem, nor any generally accepted definition of its nature and scope. This volume brings together the findings of scholars working in the area of morphological mismatches, and represents a typological and theoretical treatment of the topic.Less

Deponency and Morphological Mismatches

Published in print: 2007-11-15

Deponency is a mismatch between form and function in language that was first described for Latin, where there is a group of verbs (the deponents) that are morphologically passive but syntactically active. This is evidence of a larger problem involving the interface between syntax and morphology: inflectional morphology is supposed to specify syntactic function, but sometimes it sends out the wrong signal. Although the problem is as old as the Western linguistic tradition, no generally accepted account of it has yet been given, and it is safe to say that all current theories of language have been constructed as if deponency did not exist. In recent years, however, linguists have begun to confront its theoretical implications, albeit largely in isolation from each other. There is as yet no definitive statement of the problem, nor any generally accepted definition of its nature and scope. This volume brings together the findings of scholars working in the area of morphological mismatches, and represents a typological and theoretical treatment of the topic.

Periphrasis is the phenomenon, well attested in the languages of the world, where a grammatical meaning which we expect to be expressed within a word actually has a syntactic expression. This means ...
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Periphrasis is the phenomenon, well attested in the languages of the world, where a grammatical meaning which we expect to be expressed within a word actually has a syntactic expression. This means that periphrasis straddles the border between two major linguistic components, morphology (word structure) and syntax (sentence structure). This dual nature of periphrasis creates analytical and theoretical problems; to solve these, we need to broaden the range of the evidence examined and to adopt new theoretical approaches. The present volume answers both of these challenges. First, it presents new data on periphrasis, providing a wider typological perspective on the phenomenon than was previously available. The detailed analysis of periphrasis in individual languages from diverse linguistic families — Nakh-Daghestanian, Gunwinyguan (Australian), Uralic and Indo-European — expands our knowledge of the scope of periphrasis, and of its functions, both synchronically and diachronically. Second, the volume presents novel accounts of periphrasis from a number of theoretical approaches, including Canonical Typology, which together give a new perspective on the interaction of periphrasis with other linguistic phenomena. Periphrasis is demonstrated to behave as part of a morphological system in obeying the existing patterns, while formal accounts worked out within an HPSG approach reveal the systematic nature of its syntactic structure. This allows a clearer understanding of the relation between major components (morphology and syntax) in the overall architecture of the grammar.Less

Periphrasis : The Role of Syntax and Morphology in Paradigms

Published in print: 2012-12-13

Periphrasis is the phenomenon, well attested in the languages of the world, where a grammatical meaning which we expect to be expressed within a word actually has a syntactic expression. This means that periphrasis straddles the border between two major linguistic components, morphology (word structure) and syntax (sentence structure). This dual nature of periphrasis creates analytical and theoretical problems; to solve these, we need to broaden the range of the evidence examined and to adopt new theoretical approaches. The present volume answers both of these challenges. First, it presents new data on periphrasis, providing a wider typological perspective on the phenomenon than was previously available. The detailed analysis of periphrasis in individual languages from diverse linguistic families — Nakh-Daghestanian, Gunwinyguan (Australian), Uralic and Indo-European — expands our knowledge of the scope of periphrasis, and of its functions, both synchronically and diachronically. Second, the volume presents novel accounts of periphrasis from a number of theoretical approaches, including Canonical Typology, which together give a new perspective on the interaction of periphrasis with other linguistic phenomena. Periphrasis is demonstrated to behave as part of a morphological system in obeying the existing patterns, while formal accounts worked out within an HPSG approach reveal the systematic nature of its syntactic structure. This allows a clearer understanding of the relation between major components (morphology and syntax) in the overall architecture of the grammar.